On June 2 this year, the Dodgers were in need of pitching help. At the time, their rotation had been ravaged by injuries, and their bullpen was overworked and running low on depth. Thus, the morning after their relievers had been further taxed following a short start from Yoshinobu Yamamoto against the New York Yankees, the Dodgers went out and added a little-known pitcher in a deal with the Seattle Mariners.
Will Klein’s origin story had quietly begun.
Almost five months before becoming a World Series hero for the Dodgers, pitching four miraculously scoreless innings in their 18-inning Game 3 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday night, Klein joined the organization as a largely anonymous face, acquired in exchange for fellow reliever Joe Jacques in the kind of depth transaction the Dodgers make dozens of over the course of each season.
At that point, even Klein couldn’t have foreseen the star turn in his future.
He had a career ERA over 5.00 in the minor leagues. He had struggled in limited big-league action in 2024, battling poor command while giving up nine runs in eight outings. He had already changed organizations three times, and been designated for assignment by the Mariners the day before.
“I woke up to a 9 a.m. missed phone call and a text,” Klein recalled Tuesday. “Found out I was DFA’d. Really low then.”
Now, in the kind of serendipitous turn only October can create, Klein has etched his name into World Series lore.
“I don’t think that will set in for a long time,” he said.
As the last man standing in the Dodgers’ bullpen in Game 3, Klein pitched more than he ever has as a professional, tossing 72 pitches to save the team from putting a position player on the mound.
Afterward, he was mobbed by his teammates following Freddie Freeman’s walk-off home run, then greeted in the clubhouse with a handshake and an accomplished “good job” from Dodgers pitching icon Sandy Koufax.
He had 500 missed messages on his phone when the game ended. He got 500 more as he tried responding to everyone Tuesday morning. His middle school in Indiana, he said, had even hung a picture of him up in a hallway.
“I woke up this morning still not feeling like last night had happened,” he said in a pre-Game 4 news conference. “It was an out-of-body experience.”
A thickly bearded 25-year-old right-hander originally from Bloomington, Ind., Klein’s path to Monday’s extra-inning marathon could hardly have been more circuitous.
In high school, he was primarily a catcher, until a broken thumb prompted him to focus on pitching. When he was recruited to Eastern Illinois for college, his ACT scores (he got a 34) helped almost as much as his natural arm talent.
Dodgers pitcher Will Klein also pitched in the eighth inning of Game 1 in Toronto, allowing no runs.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
“I’m big into academics,” Eastern Illinois coach Jason Anderson said by phone Tuesday. “If you can figure out science class, you can figure out how to throw a slider.”
Anderson wasn’t wrong. Though Klein was initially raw on the mound, posting a 5.74 ERA in his first two collegiate seasons, he worked tirelessly on improving his velocity, learning how to leverage the power he generated with his long-limbed, 6-foot-5 frame.
As his fastball crept toward triple digits, he started garnering the attention of MLB scouts. Though Klein’s junior season in 2020 was cut short after four outings by the COVID-19 pandemic, he’d shown enough promise in collegiate summer leagues beforehand to get drafted in that year’s fifth and final round by the Kansas City Royals.
Klein’s rise to the major leagues from there was not linear. His poor command (he averaged nearly seven walks per nine innings in his first three minor-league years) hampered him even as he climbed the Royals’ organizational ladder.
Klein reached the big leagues last year, but made only four appearances before being included in a trade deadline deal to the Oakland Athletics. This past winter, after finishing the 2024 campaign with an 11.05 ERA, he was dealt again to the Mariners.
The return in that package? “Other considerations,” according to MLB’s transaction log.
“His whole career has been [full of] challenges,” Anderson said. “He really just needed some time and somebody to believe in him.”
With the Dodgers, that’s exactly what he found.
Long before his arrival, Klein had admirers in the organization. The club’s director of pitching, Rob Hill, was immediately struck by his high-riding heater and mid-80s mph curveball when he first saw Klein pitch in minor-league back-field games during spring training in 2021 and 2022.
“I vividly remember his outings against us in spring training,” Hill said. “I was walking around, asking people, ‘Who is this guy?’ That was my first introduction to him.”
After being traded to the Dodgers, Klein was optioned to triple-A Oklahoma City to work under the tutelage of minor-league pitching coaches Ryan Dennick and David Anderson. There, he started to refine his approach and trust his high-octane arsenal in the zone more. In 22 ⅔ innings, he struck out a whopping 44 batters.
During four stints on the MLB roster over the second half of the year — during which he posted a 2.35 ERA in 14 outings — Klein also worked with big-league pitching coaches Mark Prior and Connor McGuiness on developing a sweeper to give him an all-important third pitch.
“I think our coaches have done a fantastic job of cleaning up the delivery, challenging him to be in the hitting zone, working on a slider,” manager Dave Roberts said. “He’s a great young man. And it’s one of those things that you don’t really know until you throw somebody in the fire.”
The Dodgers didn’t do that initially this October, sending Klein to so-called “stay hot” camp in Arizona for the first three rounds of the playoffs.
But while Klein was there, Hill said it “was very notable how locked in he was” during bi-weekly sessions of live batting practice, with the pitcher “consistently asking for feedback and trying to continue to make sure his stuff was ready.”
During the team’s off week before the World Series, Klein was sent to Los Angeles to throw more live at-bats against their big-league hitters. He promptly impressed once again, helping thrust himself further into Fall Classic roster consideration as the team contemplated ways to shuffle the bullpen.
Still, when Klein learned he would actually be active for the World Series, he acknowledged it came as a surprise.
“I’m just going to go out there,” he told himself, “and do what I can to help all these guys that have worked their butts off.”
After holding his own in a scoreless inning of mop-duty in a Game 1 blowout loss to the Blue Jays, Klein started sensing another opportunity coming as Monday’s game stretched deep into the night.
“I realized that, when I looked around in the bullpen and my name was the only one still there, I was just going to [keep pitching] until I couldn’t,” he laughed.
Every time he returned to the dugout between innings, he told the coaching staff he was good to keep going.
“No one else is going to care that my legs are tired right now,” he said. “Just finding it in me to throw one more pitch, and then throw another one after that.”
Back in Illinois, Anderson was like everyone else from Klein’s past. Awed by how deep he managed to dig on the mound. Moved by a moment they, just like him, could have never foreseen or possibly imagined.
“Everything about him — his mentality, his work ethic, his obstacles, his path — it was like he was destined to be on that field at that time,” Anderson said. “That’s one of the greatest baseball games in history.”
And, against all odds, it was Klein who left perhaps its most heroic mark.
Oct. 10 (UPI) — In advance Monday’s holiday, the White House this week released a statement celebrating Columbus Day and singing the praises of the maligned explorer.
“This Columbus Day, we honor his life with reverence and gratitude, and we pledge to reclaim his extraordinary legacy of faith, courage, perseverance, and virtue from the left-wing arsonists who have sought to destroy his name and dishonor his memory,” the release said. Columbus Day is celebrated Monday.
In recent years, activists have called for Columbus Day to be renamed Indigenous People’s Day. About 10 states have officially recognized the day, sometimes with different names, such as American Indian Heritage Day or Native Americans’ Day.
Though he has been widely considered the person who discovered America, he never set foot on North American land. The Oct. 12 holiday actually commemorates the day he landed in the Bahamas. Also, he couldn’t discover a land that was already inhabited.
Norse explorer Leif Eriksson is the first European believed to have sailed to North America. He landed in Canada 500 years earlier than Columbus’ voyage.
Though the White House press release doesn’t say the Italian explorer landed in America, it calls Columbus a “true American hero.”
“Outrageously, in recent years, Christopher Columbus has been a prime target of a vicious and merciless campaign to erase our history, slander our heroes, and attack our heritage,” the release said. “Before our very eyes, left-wing radicals toppled his statues, vandalized his monuments, tarnished his character, and sought to exile him from our public spaces. Under my leadership, those days are finally over — and our Nation will now abide by a simple truth: Christopher Columbus was a true American hero, and every citizen is eternally indebted to his relentless determination.”
The reality is that Columbus enslaved native peoples, and he brutally attacked and killed those who tried to revolt. He took the native Taino “Indians” in the Caribbean back to Spain and sold them into slavery. To prevent rebellion, he would have the bodies of those he killed paraded through the streets of what is now the Dominican Republic.
“They were very well built, with very handsome bodies and very good faces,” Columbus wrote in his diary. “They do not carry arms or know them. … They should be good servants.”
Also, because the native population was not immune to European diseases, many died of illnesses like smallpox. When Columbus arrived on the island of Hispaniola (now Dominican Republic and Haiti) there were about 250,000 native people there. By 1517, only about 14,000 were left.
“This Columbus Day, more than 500 years since Columbus arrived in the New World, we follow his example, we echo his resolve, and we offer our gratitude for his life of valor and grit,” the White House’s release said. “Above all, we commit to restoring a Nation that once again dares to tame the unknown, honors our rich cultural inheritance, and offers rightful praise to our Creator above.”
The Spanish crown eventually stripped Columbus of his governorship of Hispaniola when it learned of his abuses. He admitted to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella that the accusations were true.
“The Chair Company,” premiering Sunday on HBO, is a conspiracy comedy — dark comedy, one would definitely have to say — in which Tim Robinson goes down a rabbit hole, from one carrot to the next, after a chair collapses beneath him. It’s a thriller in its way; there will be suspense, and injuries, and a lot of screaming, mostly by the star.
Robinson, who co-created the series with Zach Kanin (who also co-created Robinson’s Netflix sketch show, “I Think You Should Leave”), is a difficult hero. His main shtick is the madman underneath a cracking veneer of civilization; physically, he projects a sort of eccentric normality, like a critique of normal. From the beginning of “The Chair Company,” we see that Robinson’s Ron Trosper is tense and nervous and can’t relax, getting into a argument with a waitress over what and what isn’t a mall — he’s been named to lead the development of a new one in Canton, Ohio. (The action all takes place in the state.)
A presentation he’d been dreading goes well, but as he sits back down, his chair — a standard office model — collapses under him, robbing him of a moment of triumph. What most would throw off with a joke sets Ron on edge, and he begins an obsessive quest to track down the manufacturer. But all he comes up with are dead ends and empty offices, and he begins to suspect a conspiracy. When, getting into his car, he’s hit on the head with a pipe and told to stop asking about the chair, it only makes him more determined to uncover it. Lurking, sneaking and stealing will ensue. Reckless behavior. Shouting.
Along with some standard office comedy involving HR reports and Ron’s “know it when I see it” boss (Lou Diamond Phillips, aging gracefully), there is a family element. Wife Barb (Lake Bell) is moving ahead with plans to develop a more attractive breast pump. Daughter Natalie (Sophia Lillis) is getting married to her girlfriend, and wants to change the venue at the last moment to a haunted house. Son Seth (Will Price), a basketball player apparently of enough talent to mention it in the series, has discovered the pleasures of drinking just as recruiters are coming around. It’s not a developed thread, but it gives Price the opportunity to deliver my favorite line in the series: “Some nights I’ll have like four beers and I’ll sit in my room and I’ll put on Abbott and Costello after I’ve had a couple; it makes me feel good to know that [these] two guys found each other because they both seem so different.” Which is a theme of the show.
The character who makes the series breathe is Mike Santini (Joseph Tudisco), the person wielding the pipe. Ron will track him down, and eventually they’ll become partners in his investigation and, after a fashion, friends. (Though Ron is not always friendly.) Mike is the series’ most original conception, and, in a strange way, its heart — someone not beyond taking money from a stranger to hit another stranger over the head, but sympathetic. Lonely, he craves the connection. Ron, for his part, is forever running out on his family to join Mike in some misadventure.
Robinson, the rare “Saturday Night Live” worker who went from performer to writer, is quite adept at playing this character, which makes Ron exhausting company; it takes a certain sort of stamina, or a love for, this particular brand of chaos to put up with him. It seems hardly credible at times that he’s successfully helped raise two rational children, one to adulthood; has attained an upper-middle-class life (with Lake Bell!); and occupies a position of creative responsibility. There are difficult comic characters you’re nevertheless happy to see — Larry David, because he’s so centered in his world and basically right, Lucille Ball because she’s a genius. But Ron spends so much time at DEFCON 1, dialed up past 11, that it can be off-putting, and drowns out the human inside.
Nevertheless, like any mystery, it draws you along, waiting for answers. Seven episodes of eight were released to reviewers; the seventh ends on what feels like a note of quiet irresolution — if not, in Ron’s mind, satisfaction. But the eighth will surely not let things rest, and you may rest assured — and may need the rest — that eight is not the end.
BBC Breakfast paid a touching tribute to the Dancing on Ice star ahead of his funeral today (October 10), featuring an interview with Hatton’s former coach Blain Younis. Younis described Hatton as “a hero” to the local community, reports the Manchester Evening News.
“People are coming to lay flowers outside the gym and his house and you can just see how it’s impacted the town,” he said. “It’s like it’s hit people hard.”
“He was like the hero of Hyde,” he continued. “The astonishing thing was the heights he reached in boxing and celebrity life. He still knew everyone on a personal level around this town.”
BBC Breakfast presenter Charlie Stayt informed viewers that thousands were expected to line the streets of Greater Manchester to bid a final farewell to Hatton, before his midday funeral.
The procession will begin from Gee Cross in Hyde, making its way to Manchester Cathedral.
Hatton, who built a gym for his community, will have his procession pause there, allowing fans to reflect on their loss.
As mourners pass a pub cellar where the Hattons constructed a boxing ring, doves will be released in honour of the late sports star.
The procession will then reach Manchester Arena, a venue where Hatton often showcased his boxing prowess.
Hatton was found dead on 14 September.
His family later paid tribute, stating: “He had a heart as big as his smile, and his kindness, humour and loyalty touched everyone who was lucky enough to know him.
“As a family, our loss is immeasurable, and words cannot truly capture the pain we feel. Yet in the midst of our grief, we have been deeply moved by the overwhelming outpouring of love and support.
“Richard’s memory will forever remain in our hearts, in the hearts of his fans, and in the sport he loved so dearly.”
Celebrated for decades as Hollywood royalty, Jane Fonda could easily be living a comfortable life of extravagance and leisure.
Instead, the 87-year-old actor and Vietnam War-era provocateur is as likely to be seen knocking on voters’ doors in Phoenix on a balmy summer afternoon as sashaying down a red carpet at a glitzy movie premiere.
Politically active for more than a half-century, Fonda is now focusing her energy, celebrity, connections and resources on fighting climate change and combating the “existential crises” created by President Trump.
Calling fossil fuels a threat to humanity, Fonda created JanePAC, a political action committee that has spent millions on candidates at the forefront of that fight.
“Nature has always been in my bones, in my cells,” Fonda said in a recent interview, describing herself as an environmentalist since her tomboy youth. “And then, about 10 years ago … I started reading more, and I realized what we’re doing to the climate, which means what we’re doing to us, what we’re doing to the future, to our grandchildren and our children.
“Our existence is being challenged all because an industry, the fossil-fuel industry, wants to make more money,” she said. “I mean, I try to understand what, what must they think when they go to sleep at night? These men, they’re destroying everything.”
Rather than hosting fancy political fundraisers or headlining presidential campaign rallies, Fonda devotes her efforts to electing like-minded state legislators, city council members, utility board officials and candidates in other less flashy but critical races.
Fonda said her organization took its cue from successful GOP tactics.
“I hate to say this, but you know, in terms of playing the long game, the Republicans have been better than the Democrats,” she said. “They started to work down ballot, and they took over state legislatures. They took over governorships and mayors and city councils, boards of supervisors, and before we knew what had happened, they had power on the grassroots level.”
Fonda said her PAC selects candidates to back based on their climate-change record and viability. The beneficiaries include candidates running for state legislature and city council. Some of the races are often obscure, such as the Silver River Project board (an Arizona utility), the Port of Bellingham commission in Washington and the Lane Community College board in Oregon.
“Down ballot, if you come in, especially for primaries, you can really make a difference. You know, not all Democrats are the same,” she said. “We want candidates who have shown public courage in standing up to fossil fuels. We want candidates who can win. We’re not a protest PAC. We’re in it to win it.”
On Wednesday, Fonda announced that she is relaunching the Committee for the First Amendment, which was initially formed after the blacklisting of Hollywood actors, directors, screenwriters and others who were labeled communists or sympathizers by the House Un-American Activities Committee after World War II.
“The McCarthy Era ended when Americans from across the political spectrum finally came together and stood up for the principles in the Constitution against the forces of repression,” Fonda said. “Those forces have returned. And it is our turn to stand together in defense of our constitutional rights.”
The Trump administration has pressured media companies, law firms and universities to concede to its demands or face repercussions. The suspension of ABC’s late-night television host Jimmy Kimmel, which has been rescinded, is among the most prominent examples.
“The federal government is once again engaged in a coordinated campaign to silence critics in the government, the media, the judiciary, academia, and the entertainment industry,” Fonda said.
Since her birth, Fonda’s life has been infused by political activism.
Her father witnessed the lynching of a Black man during the 1919 Omaha race riots when he was 14, casting him into becoming a lifelong liberal.
Though such matters were not discussed at the dinner table, Fonda’s father raised money for Democratic candidates and starred in politically imbued films such as “The Grapes of Wrath,” about the exploitation of migrant workers during the Dust Bowl, and “12 Angry Men,” which focused on prejudice, groupthink and the importance of due process during the McCarthy era.
But his daughter Jane did not become politically active until her early 30s.
“Before then, I kind of led a life of ignorance, somewhat hedonistic,” she said. “Maybe deep down, I knew that once I know something, I can’t turn away.”
In “Prime Time,” Fonda’s 2011 memoir, she describes the final chapter of her life as a time of “coming to fruition rather than simply a period of marking time, or the absence of youth.”
“Unlike during childhood, Act III is a quiet ripening. It takes time and experience, and yes, perhaps the inevitable slowing down,” she wrote. “You have to learn to sort out what’s fundamentally important to you from what’s irrelevant.”
In 1972, Fonda appeared in Jean-Luc Godard’s film “Tout Va Bien,” about workers’ rights in the aftermath of widespread street protests in France four years earlier. It was her first role in a political movie and coincided with her off-screen move into activism.
Fonda’s most noteworthy and reviled political moment occurred the same year, when she was photographed by the North Vietnamese sitting atop an antiaircraft gun.
Actor and political activist Jane Fonda at a news conference in New York City on July 28, 1972. Fonda spoke about her trip to North Vietnam and interviews with American prisoners in Hanoi, Vietnam.
(Marty Lederhandler / Associated Press)
The images led to Fonda being tarred as “Hanoi Jane” and a traitor to the United States, which had deployed millions of American soldiers to Southeast Asia, many of whom never returned. Fonda says it is something she “will regret to my dying day.”
“It is possible that it was a setup, that the Vietnamese had it all planned,” Fonda wrote in 2011. “I will never know. But if they did, I can’t blame them. The buck stops here. If I was used, I allowed it to happen. It was my mistake.”
Fonda’s political beliefs have been a through line in her Hollywood career.
In 1979, she played a reporter in “The China Syndrome,” a film about a fictional meltdown at a nuclear power plant near Los Angeles. The movie’s theatrical release occurred less than two weeks before the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania.
The 1980 movie “9 to 5,” starring Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton, was a biting comedy that highlighted the treatment of women in the workplace and income inequality long before such issues were routinely discussed in workplaces.
Dolly Parton, left, Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda are harassed office workers in the 1980 movie “9 to 5.”
(20th Century Fox)
Two years later, as home VCRs grew popular, Fonda created exercise videos that shattered sales records.
She urged women to “feel the burn,” and revenue from the videos funded the Campaign for Economic Democracy, a political action committee founded by Fonda and Hayden.
This year, Fonda offered signed copies to donors to JanePAC, which she created in 2022.
“I’m still in shock that those leg warmers and leotards caught on the way they did,” Fonda wrote to supporters in April. “If you’ve ever done one of my leg lifts, or even thought about doing one, now’s your chance to own a piece of that history.”
UCLA lecturer Jim Newton, a veteran Los Angeles Times political journalist and historian of the state’s politics, described Fonda as confrontational, controversial and unapologetic.
“She’s remarkable, utterly admirable, a principled person who has devoted her life to fighting for what she believes in,” said Newton, who quotes Fonda in his new book, “Here Beside the Rising Tide: Jerry Garcia, the Grateful Dead, and an American Awakening.”
Newton added that Fonda’s outspoken nature certainly harmed her career.
“I’m sure that there are directors, producers, whatnot, especially in the ‘70s and ‘80s, who passed on chances to work with her because of her politics,” he said. “And I’m sure she knew that, right? She did it. It’s not been without sacrifice. She’s true to herself, like very few people.”
A year after Fonda and Hayden divorced in 1990, she married CNN founder and philanthropist Ted Turner, who she once described as “my favorite ex-husband.” Though Fonda largely paused her acting career during their decade-long marriage, she remained politically active.
In 1995, Fonda founded a Georgia effort dedicated to reducing teenage pregnancy. Five years later, she launched the Jane Fonda Center for Reproductive Health at Emory University.
After Fonda and Turner divorced, she worked with Tomlin on raising the minimum wage in Michigan and then launched Fire Drill Fridays — acts of civil disobedience — with Greenpeace in 2019.
Jane Fonda speaks during a rally before a march from the U.S. Capitol to the White House as part of her “Fire Drill Fridays” rally protesting against climate change on Nov. 8, 2019.
(Alex Wong / Getty Images)
Fonda said she decided to create her political action committee after facing headwinds persuading Gov. Gavin Newsom to create setbacks for oil wells in 2020.
“He wasn’t moving on it, and somebody very high up in his campaign said to us, ‘You can have millions of people in your organization all over California, but you don’t have a big enough carrot or stick to move the governor. … You don’t have an electoral strategy,’” Fonda recalled. “Since we’ve started the PAC, it’s interesting how politicians deal with us differently. They know that we’ve got money. They know that we have tens of thousands of volunteers all over the country.”
Initially concentrated on climate change, JanePAC has expanded its focus since Trump was reelected in November.
“We’re facing two existential crises, climate and democracy, and it’s now or never for both,” Fonda said. “We can’t have a stable democracy with an unstable climate, and we can’t have a stable climate unless we have a democracy, And so we have to fight both together.”
Fonda’s PAC has raised more than $9 million since its creation through June 30, according to the Federal Election Commission.
In 2024, JanePAC supported 154 campaigns and won 96 of those races. The committee gave nearly $700,000 directly to campaigns and helped raise more than $1.1 million for their endorsed candidates and ballot measures. In 2025, they have endorsed 63 campaigns and plan to soon launch get-out-the-vote efforts in support of Proposition 50, Newsom’s ballot measure to redraw California’s congressional districts that will appear on the November ballot.
Arizona state Rep. Oscar De Los Santos, the minority leader in the state’s House of Representatives, recalled Fonda’s support during the 2024 election, not only for his reelection bid but also a broader effort to try to win Democratic control of the state Legislature.
In addition to raising $500,000 at a Phoenix event for candidates, De Los Santos recalled the actor spending days knocking on Arizona voters’ doors.
“It is a moral validator to have Jane Fonda support your campaigns, especially at a time when corporate interests have more money and more power than ever, having somebody in your corner who’s been on the right side of history for decades,” said De Los Santos, who represents a south Phoenix district deeply affected by environmental justice issues.
Voters are often stunned when Fonda shows up on their doorstep.
“I’ve had people walking out of their laundry room and dropping all the laundry,” Fonda said with a laugh.
But others don’t know who she is and Fonda doesn’t tell them.
Jane Fonda
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
“It’s amazing. You wouldn’t think that in just a few minutes on someone’s doorstep, you can really find out a lot,” Fonda said, recalling discovering her love of canvassing when she was married to Hayden.”I loved talking to people and finding out what they care about and what they’re scared of and what they’re angry about.”
Fonda does not walk in lockstep with the Democratic party. In 2023, she joined other climate-change activists protesting a big-money Joe Biden fundraiser. They argued that the then-president had strayed from the environmental promises he made when he ran for election, such as by approving a massive oil drilling project on the North Slope of Alaska.
Fonda said she supported Biden’s 2024 reelection despite disagreeing with some of his policies because of the threat she believed Trump poses.
“When you see what the choice was, of course you’re going to vote,” she said. “I get so mad at people who say, you know, ‘I don’t like him, so I’m not going to vote.’ [A] young person said to me, we already have fascism. They don’t know history. You know, we don’t teach civics anymore, so they don’t understand that what’s happening now is leading to fascism. I mean, this is real tyranny.”
But she also faulted Biden and then-Vice President Kamala Harris after she became the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, as well as 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, for failing to speak to the economic pain being experienced by Americans who backed Trump.
“They’re not all MAGA,” she said.
Many were just angry and hurting, she said, because they couldn’t afford groceries or pay medical bills. Fonda believes many now have buyer’s remorse.
Fonda reflected on the parallels between the turmoil in the 1960s and today. In the interview, which took place before the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, she argued that today’s political climate is more perilous.
“I’m not sure that what we have right now in the U.S. is a democracy,” she said. “It’s far graver. Far, far graver now than it was.”
Fonda said she remains driven, not by blind optimism, but by immersing herself in work that she believes makes a difference.
“This is what I’m going to be doing for the rest of my life,” she said.
Deaves picked up from where he left off last season, impressing in Ospreys’ opening round defeat to Bulls in the United Rugby Championship (URC).
And Jones believes that continued good form has put him in Wales contention.
“I’d be surprised if he [Deaves] is not in the international conversation right now,” said Jones.
“If you look at his post-contact metres, he’s the highest in our squad. He beats defenders and wins collisions in his own way, not just with brute force.
“He’s got a good skillset and is super aggressive. They’re all the traits you associate with an international player.”
Deaves, who still coaches at his hometown club of Pontyclun, said a Wales call would be reward for defying the odds during his early career.
“I was a late developer and playing in a tough position, always being called too small and stuff like that,” said 5ft 11in (1.80m) Deaves.
“The size of my heart had to take over sometimes and I’d like to say that still carries on now.
“It’s about making my village proud, I love representing my village and giving back to my family. [But] I just need to focus on where I am right now.”
“You’re in this now! You’ve got a lot of work to do!”
The gravelly voice was unmistakably Kirk Gibson. The object of his growl was a journalist who spent two years battling him on the Dodgers beat.
Only this time, Gibby wasn’t yelling at me. This time, he was cheering for me.
“I’m fighting it, you gotta fight it! You gotta take it head-on, because this s— ain’t going away!”
Kirk Gibson plays ping pong at the Kirk Gibson Center for Parkinson’s Wellness in Farmington Hills, Mich., on Sept. 26.
(Nic Antaya/Nic Antaya / For the Times)
Thirty-five years after we sparred in the Dodger clubhouse, Gibson and I have found ourselves on the same team.
We both have Parkinson’s Disease, and he spent much of a recent 45-minute phone call pushing me to battle the incurable illness the way he once battled a certain backdoor slider.
Kirk Gibson’s game-winning home run from Game 1 of the 1988 World Series.
For many, an indelible memory. But in many ways, he’s no longer the same Kirk Gibson.
In 2015, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, a progressive neurological disorder that affects movement.
Today, his home-run gait around the bases would be wobbly, and his right fist pumps would be shaky, and afterward he might need help in the locker room buttoning his shirt.
But one thing that has remained powerful is his fire.
“You battle through it!”
He is battling it such that this fall, he will hit another monumental home run, this one far more impactful than any previous October blast.
There are few places in the country quite like it — this giant, 30,000-square feet warehouse dedicated to Parkinson’s patients, complete with two gyms, 11 spaces for movement classes, a track, a social space and even quiet rooms for those experiencing the off times that occur during those dreaded gaps in the daily medication.
Catherine Yu leads a tai chi class at the Kirk Gibson Center for Parkinson’s Wellness in Farmington Hills, Mich.
(Nic Antaya/Nic Antaya / For the Times)
And it’s all free. For everyone. All the time.
“It was fun to hit the home run, but this involves a lot more people,” Gibson said. “We’re trying to create a culture where people with Parkinson’s can thrive. Instead of sitting home being depressed, you come out and occupy your mind and participate in classes and deal with your life.”
Gibson is so ingrained in his created community that he has an office in the middle of the building and shows up nearly every day to coach a most unlikely looking squad.
“We’re not a good-looking group, but we’re a great group,” he said. “We’re a bunch of people moving around, shaking, some have walkers, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. We’re a beautiful bunch.”
When Gibson gives speeches, he asks the audience to identify their own personal World Series. Gibson was a Fall Classic hero in 1984 and 1988, but it’s clear, his World Series is here, his World Series is now, and as he strongly encouraged me in my situation, you could almost hear the drumbeat of October.
“Fight it! Take it head on!”
The night Kirk Gibson made Dodger history, he did so alone. Because he was certain leg injuries would prevent him from playing in the 1988 World Series opener, he sent his family home before the game. When he hit his historic blast, he was unable to share it with loved ones, so it didn’t seem real.
Dodgers star Kirk Gibson raises his arm in celebration as he rounds the bases after hitting a two–run game-winning homer in the bottom of the ninth inning to beat the Oakland Athletics 5–4 in the first game of the World Series at Dodger Stadium on Oct. 15, 1988.
(AP)
“All these years, I didn’t really know what happened,” he said. “I never really felt it.”
“When he made that call, that put it all in perspective,” Gibson said. “He took that moment and made it what it had been all those years. I got it, and I was handing it off to Freddie, and I was so honored.”
Gibson said his Parkinson’s diagnosis, which was made official in 2015 after his left arm became glued to his side, has made him appreciate every small wonder.
“After all these years of gruffness … I’ve changed,” he said. “It’s like you’re living a different life.”
Several years ago Gibson was playing golf with an Australian businessman who had no idea that Gibson was once a baseball and football star. Steve Annear was struck by Gibson’s devotion to seeking a Parkinson’s cure, which had become the focus of the Kirk Gibson Foundation.
“Here was this popular athlete who could have been doing anything,” said Annear. “But he was spending his time helping other people. I so admired him.”
Steve Annear, CEO of the Kirk Gibson Foundation, left, stands beside former Dodgers star Kirk Gibson in front of a pool table at the Kirk Gibson Center for Parkinson’s Wellness in Farmington Hills, Mich.
(Nic Antaya/Nic Antaya / For the Times)
Annear, an amputee who recently climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with the sort of fighting spirit that first attracted Gibson, became CEO and director of the foundation. Their team came up with the idea of a wellness center in 2023, raised $27 million to build it and construction was completed in July. In the process, it became obvious that Gibson’s approach was different.
The legendarily abrasive superstar? It had been replaced by a more sensitive soul, one who will give impromptu pep talks to anyone he encounters who is clearly suffering from Parkinson’s, whether it be in an airport terminal or grocery store checkout line.
”There’s no doubt that Parkinson’s has humbled Gibby,” said Annear. “He is selfless, very determined, very passionate, all about other people.”
Nearly 900 folks have already registered to become members during a recent soft launch, and Gibson has joined them in their daily activities, doing everything from playing pool to taking spin classes
”What’s always mattered most to Kirk is the team, and this is his new team,” said Annear. “The center is his new locker room, and the attendees, the administrators, the staff, they’re all his new teammates.”
Not that he has forgotten his old teams, as a large cutout of Gibson celebrating in a Detroit Tigers uniform can be found in the center. With help from the great Peter O’Malley, Gibson will also soon decorate a room with Tommy Lasorda’s legendary Vero Beach dinner table.
“The way this has all come together is unbelievable,” said Gibson. “It’s divine intervention.”
Just the other day, Gibson was getting a haircut when somebody walked up and handed him $300 for the wellness center.
”We’re trying to help as many people as possible,” he said. “I hate going to the doctor, I hate going to the hospital. The wellness center isn’t anything like that. It’s a cool place.”
Like everyone with Parkinson’s, Gibson has his good days and bad days. Life is not measured by how one falls, but how one gets back up.
Two years ago while fishing in Alaska, Gibson tumbled out of the boat. This year he didn’t.
“I’m pretty proud of that,” he said.
Kirk Gibson sits alongside signs greeting visitors at the Kirk Gibson Center for Parkinson’s Wellness in Farmington Hills, Mich.
(Nic Antaya/Nic Antaya / For the Times)
Rarely has he felt the pride he will feel on Oct. 6 when, with the formal opening of the Kirk Gibson Center for Parkinson’s Wellness, baseball’s ultimate competitor once again creating the impossible out of the improbable.
“I don’t get scared,” said Gibson. “I attack.”
And so he ended our conversation by strongly urging me to fly cross country and visit his center, to be enriched and educated and basically get my Parkinson’s-laden butt moving.
I told him I would try. The phone exploded in my hands.
“Try? You know what Lasorda always said. ‘I could get a truck driver to try!’ Don’t just try! Do it!”
Watch: Key moments from Charlie Kirk’s memorial service
US President Donald Trump hailed the conservative activist Charlie Kirk as a “great American hero” and “martyr” during a speech to tens of thousands of mourners at a memorial service in Arizona.
Trump was the headline speaker at the packed event on Sunday, which saw top officials from his administration, including Vice-President JD Vance, praise Kirk’s political legacy after he was shot dead on 10 September.
“He was assassinated because he lived bravely, he lived boldly and he argued brilliantly,” Trump told the crowd at the State Farm Stadium near Phoenix.
Kirk’s wife, Erika, also delivered a tearful speech in which she said she had forgiven her husband’s alleged killer.
“My husband, Charlie, he wanted to save young men, just like the one who took his life,” she said, adding: “I forgive him because it is what Christ did. The answer to hate is not hate.”
Tens of thousands of people queued for hours outside the stadium before the event, with some even camping out the night before to secure their spot. Many wore Make America Great Again (MAGA) hats, other Trump-branded items and red, white and blue outfits.
Inside the stadium, the mood and atmosphere resembled a raucous political rally or megachurch service with music beforehand from Christian bands who prompted singalongs and prayer from the crowd of almost 100,000.
The list of speakers included members of Kirk’s organisation, Turning Point USA, which focuses on conservative activism on college campuses, well-known figures in the conservative movement, Trump administration officials and those who said they had been shaped by Kirk’s work and right-wing Christian worldview.
They stressed the need to continue the 31-year-old’s activism and emphasised his deep faith throughout the five-hour service. Kirk, who was debating students at a university in Utah when he was shot dead, was repeatedly described as a martyr and cast as a historic figure for the conservative movement.
EPA
Tens of thousands gathered inside the stadium for the memorial to Kirk
Several speakers said they believed his death would further revitalise the conservative moment in America, which is already in a powerful position given Trump’s hold of the White House and the Republican control of Congress.
“The day that Charlie died, angels wept, but those tears have been turned into fire in our hearts,” said Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff. “Our enemies cannot comprehend our strength.”
At one stage, Elon Musk, who had a bitter and public falling out with Trump earlier this year, sat next to the president and the pair shook hands and chatted.
Within the stands and on stage at the State Farm Stadium, Kirk was revered as an activist for free speech and a mobiliser of the youth vote for Trump. “Charlie didn’t just help, he made the winning difference, I promise you that,” White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles said.
“We wouldn’t be here without him,” Vice-President JD Vance told the crowd, who at times erupted into an extended chant of “U-S-A, U-S-A”.
“We’ve got it from here,” he added, while discussing Kirk’s political legacy.
Vance was one of several key figures from the Trump administration who spoke on stage, with others including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Heath Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.
‘I forgive him’
They were followed by Kirk’s wife, Erika, who was tearful at times as she described her relationship and vowed to continue her husband’s work. She was named the new CEO of Turning Point USA after his death.
“I saw the wound that ended his life,” she said. “I felt everything he would expect to feel. I felt shock. I felt horror, and a level of heartache that I didn’t even know existed.
“These past 10 days after Charlie’s assassination, we didn’t see violence. We didn’t see rioting. We didn’t see revolution. Instead, we saw what my husband always prayed he would see in this country, we saw revival,” Kirk told the crowd.
She then said she had forgiven her husband’s alleged killer, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson. “That man, that young man, I forgive him. I forgive him because it was what Christ did and it is what Charlie would do,” Kirk said.
Watch: Is America divided? Charlie Kirk supporters weigh in
There was a raucous reception when President Trump took the stage after Erika Kirk. He repeatedly praised Charlie Kirk, while at times turning to his usual political talking points including crime in American cities and mocking his predecessor Joe Biden.
“He’s a martyr now for America’s freedom,” Trump said of Kirk. “I know I speak for everyone here today when I say that none of us will ever forget Charlie. And neither now will history.”
The president then said he disagreed with Kirk on one thing. “He did not hate his opponents, he wanted the best for them,” he said, prompting some laughs. “That’s where I disagree with Charlie. I hate my opponents and I don’t want what’s best for them.”
Trump also attacked what he called the “radical left” and blamed the left for violence in the country.
At the end of his address, in which he described Kirk as a “great of his generation”, Trump was joined on stage by Erika Kirk and the pair hugged as the crowd applauded.
Reuters
Trump and Erika Kirk hugged at the end of the memorial service and thanked the crowd of thousands
The deeply partisan event was reflective of how Kirk’s death has laid bare the extreme political divisions in America, with many on the right casting blame on the left for stoking political violence.
The Trump administration is seeking a crackdown on what it calls the “radical left”, which in turn has prompted accusations of government overreach and claims Kirk’s death is being used as a pretext to intrude on civil liberties.
Robinson, who has been charged with Kirk’s murder, is facing the death penalty but a motive for the killing is yet to be revealed by officials.
Kirk was 18 when he co-founded Turning Point USA, a student organisation focused on spreading conservative ideas on college campuses.
He would hold debates on campuses and became known for his combative style, inviting students to step up to the microphone and challenge his right-wing Christian worldview in front of a baying audience.
Clips of these exchanges built him a huge following – more than 5m followers on X and 7m on TikTok – that helped him mobilise the youth vote for President Trump.
While he energised young conservatives, his remarks on issues such as race and crime also routinely prompted an angry liberal backlash. He was a strong supporter of gun rights, vehemently opposed abortion, was critical of transgender rights and promoted false claims about Covid-19.
But 23-year-old Hodgkinson remains determined to add the crown to her Olympic and European successes.
Given that the Leigh athlete also wants to break the 42-year-old world record in her event, then the sky really is the limit for the next decade.
Asked if she could become the greatest track-and-field star Britain has ever produced, World Athletics chief Lord Coe said: “Yeah, she absolutely could.
“I have no doubt about that. Absolutely, for sure. She could end up at the top of the heap internationally if she goes on.
“Touch wood, she’s got many athletics seasons ahead of her. And she’s also got good coaches in Jenny Meadows and Trevor Painter.
“Those guys know what they’re doing. It’s a really good example of British coaching at its best.
“I have spoken to her enough times to know that, mentally, she’s mahogany hard. She really is.
“She wants to end her athletics career at the top of the heap — and there’s no reason why she shouldn’t.”
Hodgkinson opened her season on August 16 having not competed for 376 days following two hamstring injuries.
Keely Hodgkinson wins BBC SPOTY 2024 as Olympic gold medallist pips Luke Littler to top prize
And her time of 1min 54.74sec in Poland — the best in the world so far this year — was described by Coe as “unbelievable”.
In her next appearance, four days later in the driving rain of Lausanne, Switzerland, she posted a winning mark of 1:55.69.
British middle-distance legend Coe, 68, a double 1500m Olympic champion himself, admitted: “You just have to marvel at how she has come back.
“To be out injured and then basically you first set foot on the track and you’re running 1:54…
“We’ve been saying for a long time, she is the real deal. What was clever was doing two races back to back.
“She was clearly testing out a thesis: did she have enough in the tank to go back-to-back? That is what she’s going to be asked to do in Tokyo.
“The answer was a resounding ‘Yes’. She’s in good nick.”
The nine-day World Championships begin on Saturday and are being staged in the same national stadium which hosted the Covid-hit Olympics four years ago.
However, Coe insists there are contingency plans in place in case the event is impacted by typhoons in the Far East.
Severe weather saw three matches cancelled during the Rugby World Cup in Japan six years ago.
The British boss added: “Let’s hope there isn’t one!
“We do have full meteorological prediction and predictive teams out there at the moment.”
ASHLEY and Tyler Young are set to become the first father-son duo to take to the field in Championship history.
The pair were denied a historic meeting by Peterborough boss Darren Ferguson in last season’s FA Cup when Tyler and his Posh team-mates took on Premier League side Everton.
3
Ashley Young and his son Tyler were denied a historic father-son moment in last season’s FA CupCredit: REX
3
But they could make history as the first father-son duo to play for the same team following Tyler’s move to Ipswich TownCredit: REX
Had Tyler taken to the pitch while his old man was on the field, they would’ve become the first father-son duo to play against one another in the 154-year history of the FA Cup.
But now, they could potentially play for the SAME TEAM after Tyler was signed to Ipswich Town‘s Under-21s following a successful trial.
Former Manchester United and England star Ashley joined the Tractor Boys this summer at the ripe old age of 40.
And the magnitude of Town’s signing of his son hasn’t gone unnoticed by football fans.
One wrote on X:”Like father, like son.”
Another said: “Hopefully, they get given a game together.”
And another said: “Finally get to play together professionally.”
One remarked: “Would love to see them play in the same team together.”
Gurkha veteran and mountaineer Hari Budha Magar enjoyed a new type of adventure on the Norwegian Fjords, following a surprise gift at the Daily Mirror’s Pride of Britain Awards
RAF Flight Lieutenant John Cruickshank has died at the age of 105Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
5
In 2013 with a Catalina flying boat, like the one he skipperedCredit: Getty
5
The brave RAF ace stands proudly in his uniformCredit: PA:Press Association
It was 81 years ago that he performed an extraordinary act of sustained bravery, as he defied the agony of multiple severe injuries to bring home his badly damaged plane after a lethal encounter with a U-boat off the coast of Norway.
He was one of four Coastal Command airmen to receive this award, but his case was unique.
The other three had died in action and were honoured posthumously.
He had survived but it was a mighty close-run thing.
It was appropriate that this Scotsman of rock-hard resilience should hail from Aberdeen, long known as “the Granite City”.
He had left school in 1938 to become an apprentice in banking.
But the drumbeat of war was echoing across Europe so he volunteered for the Territorial Army, enlisting in the Royal Artillery.
Called up for service with this regiment in 1939, he transferred to the RAF two years later then went through initial flight instruction in Canada and the US.
Back in Britain, having won his wings as a pilot, he continued his training until March 1943 when he was assigned to 210 Squadron in Coastal Command, based at Sullom Voe in the Shetland Islands.
The Last of the Few, John ‘Paddy’ Hemingway has died, age 105
Man of modesty
His squadron’s main duty was to protect Allied ships from U-boats and they were equipped with the rugged and reliable American-built twin-engine Catalina flying boat.
It was on July 17, 1944, soon after D-Day, that the incident occurred which lifted John Cruickshank into the record book, but almost killed him.
He was piloting an anti- submarine patrol off Norway when his radio operator John Appleton picked up a blip on the Catalina’s equipment.
John began to home in on the target, whose status as a U-boat was confirmed by fire from its 37 mm gun.
Appleton wrote in his memoir: “The skipper manoeuvred into a perfect attacking position astern of the submarine, just out of range of the enemy gunfire. He gave a blast on the klaxon and started the attack run-in from about two miles.”
As the plane got closer, flak from the U-boat intensified and was reinforced as its two pairs of 20mm cannon opened up.
The skipper manoeuvred into a perfect attacking position astern of the submarine, just out of range of the enemy gunfire. He gave a blast on the klaxon and started the attack run-in from about two miles
John Appleton
John flew on and appeared to have released the depth charges at the right moment.
But the bombs had hung up, so he then took the plane out of range of the U-boat, while his crew rearmed their own guns and checked the bomb-release mechanism.
“Everyone ready! Here we go again,” said John over the intercom.
Of the second attack, Appleton recalled: “This time all the flak was bursting much closer to us and I was surprised at how thick it could be.
“We seemed to be flying into a wall of black explosions.”
But again, John descended upon the target without hesitation.
5
The first thing John said when he had regained consciousness in the stricken Catalina, was: ‘How are my crew?’Credit: PA:Press Association
5
John was awarded the Victoria Cross for his extraordinary act of sustained braveryCredit: Alamy
This time the depth charges hit their target with deadly accuracy. Seconds later, the U-boat began to sink. None of the 52 men on board had a chance of survival.
But by now John’s plane, caught by more enemy fire, was in serious trouble.
Flames and smoke began to fill the aircraft. The radar was wrecked and the nose canopy shattered.
One crewman was dead and four others were badly wounded, including John, who had been hit in his chest and legs and was bleeding heavily.
But all was not lost. With the use of extinguishers, some of the uninjured crewmen put out the fire.
As the co-pilot took over the controls, John was carried to the back of the plane.
Throughout, he set an example of determination, fortitude and devotion to duty in keeping with the highest traditions of the service
Citation from Victoria Cross ceremony
Lapsing in and out of consciousness, he was in tremendous pain but refused any morphine from the emergency safety kit because he wanted to keep alert so he could help bring the Catalina boat plane home to Sullom Voe.
With almost superhuman fortitude, he returned to the cockpit to oversee the final descent just as dawn was breaking.
After landing successfully on the water, he ran the shattered plane on to the beach.
He had to be given an emergency blood transfusion before being taken to Lerwick Hospital, where he was found to have suffered 72 wounds.
His citation read: “Throughout, he set an example of determination, fortitude and devotion to duty in keeping with the highest traditions of the service.”
From a generation that never sought the spotlight
Barney Crockett
But he was a man of profound modesty who hated talking about his exploits.
Even at his investiture, he crept out of a side door afterwards to avoid the attention of the press and public.
In the same vein, when he had regained consciousness in the stricken Catalina, the first thing he said was: “How are my crew?”
Though he had recuperated imp-ressively in hospital, the legacy of his injuries was too severe to allow him to return to flying duties, so for the rest of the war he held a staff job at Coastal Command HQ.
Later, on demobilisation at the end of the war, he resumed his career in banking, eventually working in international finance before he retired in 1977.
Happily married, he lost his beloved wife Marion in 1985.
In his final years, in sheltered accommodation, he disliked any fuss, whether about his VC or his birthdays.
Barney Crockett, the former Lord Provost of his native Aberdeen, once said John was “from a generation that never sought the spotlight”.
But it was also the generation that saved the world from tyranny.
He will officially join the club upon receipt of his international transfer certificate (ITC), visa and work permit.
“I’m looking forward to coming to Vancouver to help this team win a championship,” said Muller, who started his youth career at Bayern in 2000 and led them to two Champions League and 13 Bundesliga titles.
“I’ve heard great things about the city, but first and foremost I’m coming to win. I’ve had great conversations with [sporting director] Axel Schuster and [head coach] Jesper Sorensen, and now I can’t wait to play in front of the supporters and to see all of the fans come out to BC Place as we head towards the play-offs.”
Muller also made 131 appearances for Germany, scoring 45 goals, and lifted the 2014 World Cup after winning the Golden Boot as top scorer of the 2010 tournament in South Africa.
Vancouver are currently second, a point behind San Diego, in the Western Conference with 10 regular season matches remaining.
GOALIE Hannah Hampton was England’s penalties hero with two saves as the Lionesses roared to Euros glory over Spain last night.
Hannah starred in the 3-1 shootout win after the sides drew 1-1 in Basel, Switzerland.
10
Goalie Hannah Hampton was England’s penalties hero as she starred in the 3-1 shootout winCredit: AFP
10
It was striker Chloe Kelly who sealed the winCredit: EPA
10
The Lionesses lift the trophy after their Euros victory over SpainCredit: Reuters
The King hailed their historic victory, three years after winning Euro 2022. He said: “The next task is to bring home the World Cup in 2027 if you possibly can!”
They are the first senior England football team to win a major tournament on foreign soil and the first to retain a trophy after victory in 2022.
It was striker Chloe Kelly who sealed the win — repeating her feat from Wembley three years ago when she took off her jersey in celebration.
Manager Sarina Wiegman — winning her third consecutive Euros after victory in 2017 with the Netherlands — ran on to the pitch punching the air as she joined the mass of players and staff mobbing Kelly.
The Arsenal ace was in tears as she joined thousands of delighted fans singing Sweet Caroline.
Moments later, Kelly said: “I am so proud of this team. So grateful to wear this badge. So proud to be English. I was cool, I was composed.
“I knew I was going to hit the back of the net. Unbelievable. All the staff and Sarina Wiegman — she has done it again! Unbelievable.
“It is going to be crazy. I hope the whole of England comes out to support us and shows their love to these girls as they deserve it.”
Supersub Michelle Agyemang, the breakout star of the tournament, sank to her knees and wept as Kelly’s penalty went in.
Chloe Kelly completes Lionesses’ greatest comeback yet to retain Euros title
Just before kick-off, a snap of the pair was posted on the Prince and Princess of Wales’s X account with the caption: “Let’s go, Lionesses.”
Jubilant Wills later greeted them, giving skipper Leah Williamson a hug, before they were presented the Euro 2025 trophy on the pitch.
King Charles told the Lionesses: “You have my whole family’s warmest appreciation and admiration. The next task is to bring home the World Cup in 2027, if you possibly can!”
The team will be at a Downing Street reception today hosted by Deputy PM Angela Rayner and sports minister Stephanie Peacock.
Ms Rayner said: “Our Lionesses are absolute champions. Not only are they bringing it home for England again, but they’re inspiring the next generation of champions too.”
PM Keir Starmer added: “The Lionesses have once again captured the hearts of the nation.
“Their victory is not only a remarkable sporting achievement, but an inspiration for young people across the country.”
10
Dad Wills and Princess Charlotte look delighted as England win the shoot-outCredit: Getty
10
Penalty hero Chloe Kelly lifts the Euros 2025 trophyCredit: EPA
10
Hannah celebrates with the trophy after the Lionesses triumphCredit: Richard Sellers/Sportsphoto/APL
Former England striker and footie pundit Gary Lineker wrote online: “They’ve done it again. She’s done it again. Kelly’s heroes. Fabulous.”
Dutchwoman Wiegman said after the win: “I can’t believe it! We said we can win by any means and that’s what we have shown again today.
“I am so proud of the team and the staff. It is incredible.”
Spain were favourites on the back of an impressive run of ten straight victories in all competitions, scoring 38 goals in the process.
But England, despite a shaky start to the tournament, were confident after seeing off Sweden in the quarters and Italy in the semi-final.
A crowd of 34,203 watched as England enjoyed a bright start, with the first chance after three minutes.
But as the match wore on, Spain began to dominate and England goalkeeper Hannah Hampton was forced into several crucial saves.
Mariona Caldentey put Spain ahead on 25 minutes, with Alessia Russo heading England level on 57 minutes.
Then, with neither side making a breakthrough in extra time, the match went to a penalty shootout.
LUCY BRONZE has revealed that she played the entirety of Euro 2025 with a fractured tibia.
The Lionesses stalwart, 33, incredibly fought through the serious injury to play a key role as Sarina Wiegman’s side retained their Euros crown.
1
Lucy Bronze incredibly played through the pain barrier at Euro 2025Credit: Getty
Bronze played 105 minutes of England’s final victory over Spain, before finally being forced off at half-time of extra time with a knee issue.
Following the Lionesses’ 3-1 penalty shoot-out victory, the Chelsea full-back told the BBC: “I have actually played the whole tournament with a fractured tibia, and then I have hurt my knee on my other leg.
“That’s why I got a lot of praise from the girls after the Sweden game, as I’ve been in a lot of pain. If that’s what it takes to play for England, that’s what I’ll do.”
“Very painful.”
On the tournament as a whole, warrior Bronze added: “We never lost belief in ourselves. There was a lot of noise on the outside. We stuck together and dug deep. To win on penalties. This team is so inspiring to be part of.
“What we have done today is unbelievable.
“Winning on penalties is an amazing feeling, but to lose on penalties is a horrible way to lose a final.
“I know a lot of these girls from Barca missing penalties. It is difficult I have been there a couple of years ago.
When Terry Bollea, more commonly known as Hulk Hogan, showed up in an evening slot at the 2024 Republican National Convention, reactions were mixed.
Then-candidate President Trump and his supporters, both in and outside the hall, were clearly delighted, especially when Hogan, in a signature move, ripped off his T-shirt to display a Trump/Vance tank. Others reacted with disgust, decrying the “cheap” theatrics of a stunt in which Trump courted fans of professional wrestling and Hogan tried to regain national relevance.
In either case, it was mutual benediction. Trump won by leveraging a popular culture that Hogan, who died Thursday at 71, played a significant role in shaping. From the popularity of scripted reality television to the celebration of “real Americans,” Hogan’s career catalyzed and mirrored the shifting zeitgeist.
Forty years ago, he began leveraging an in-your-face patriotism (complete with “Real American” as his theme song) and a naked demand for dominance to become a self-spun celebrity who helped turn pro wrestling from a niche form of entertainment into an international billion-dollar industry.
He created the template for reality-star brand management when Kim Kardashian was still in diapers; he amassed millions of devoted followers by speaking to them directly, and in all caps long before social media was invented. He was canceled (for racist language), only to be uncanceled after a successful apology tour.
He not only survived the release of a sex tape, he sued (with the help of billionaire Peter Thiel) the media site Gawker for publishing it and won, putting Gawker out of business and striking fear into the heart of the free press. He thwarted unions, starred in movies, had a restaurant chain and co-owned his own brand of beer.
Tap any portion of modern celebrity culture — good, bad and ugly — and there’s Hulk Hogan, all handle-bar mustache and “Let me tell you something, brother.” The take-no-prisoners combative style that made him stand out in the 1980s has become just as mainstream as professional wrestling.
Even those who would rather eat glass than watch pro wrestling know who he was; he was a pioneer of personality as profession.
Six foot eight and built like a tank, Terry Bollea became a professional wrestler in 1977 and cultivated the kind of self-aggrandizing personality that had made Gorgeous George (George Raymond Wagner) a star decades earlier. But Hulk Hogan cast himself as a hero, unleashed to lay the bad guys flat. He spoke directly to his audience, including children, and soon gained national, and then international, fame, for himself and the World Wrestling Federation.
Hulk Hogan cast himself as a hero, helping to popularize pro wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation, which would later become World Wrestling Entertainment.
(Universal History Archive/ Universal Archive / Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
So much so that, in 1993, the World Wildlife Fund sued the organization over its initials, forcing it to change its name to World Wrestling Entertainment — WWE. The name change made perfect sense — pro wrestling has always been more about entertainment than sport. Yes, the participants are super-fit and strong and their bodies endure all manner of injury, but their brawls are not true competitions.
The matches are carefully choreographed, with winners chosen beforehand (though the outcomes are kept from the audience). With its reliance on over-the-top personas categorized as “faces” (good guys) and “heels” (villains), pro wrestling, like many modern reality programs, was all about audience preference.
In many ways, Hulk Hogan was the first reality TV star, a champion not because he was a better wrestler (or at least not in the nonprofessional sense) but because he was a better performer, pushing back against the rise of the new, gentler, feminist man of the 1980s with his physicality and bravado.
Not that he was above modifying his persona for increased popularity — in his early years, he was a “face” before becoming a “heel,” a growling villain renamed Hollywood Hogan. “I did it to upset the fans,” he told The Times in 2019. “But it didn’t really work. They still loved me.”
By the late 1980s, “Hulkamania” was everywhere, feeding off Hogan’s signature colors (yellow and red), moves (the leg-drop) and catchphrases (“Whatcha gonna do when the Hulkamania runs wild on you, brother?”). Not even an admission that he used steroids, after years of claiming otherwise, derailed his popularity.
Everyone wanted a piece of him, and Hogan began showing up in film and television. In 1982, he played Thunderlips, a version of himself, in “Rocky III,” taking on Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky Balboa in an exhibition match.
Hogan would also show up on the small screen in “The Love Boat,” “The A-Team,” “The All New Mickey Mouse Club” and, more recently, “The Goldbergs”; he made some terrible movies, including “Suburban Commando” and “Mr. Nanny,” did voice-work for video games and appeared, of course, in countless WWE productions. He set the stage for other pro wrestlers to become actors, including the Rock, John Cena and Dave Bautista.
In 2005, he went full-bore reality, starring in “Hogan Knows Best” which focused on his family life with wife Linda, son Nick and daughter Brooke. (Hogan agreed in part to support Brooke’s burgeoning singing career.) As with many celebrity family-based series, it ended after four seasons, when actual reality, including the couple’s divorce and Nick’s involvement in a car crash for which he was charged with reckless driving (and later sentenced to prison), made it impossible to continue.
Despite his many wrestling titles and iconic matches, Hogan’s most famous battle occurred in a courtroom. In 2012, Gawker published portions of a sex tape in which he appeared. Hogan sued. Or rather Terry Bollea sued (with the financial support of Thiel, who had his own ax to grind with Gawker for outing him years earlier). He claimed that while Hulk Hogan was a public figure who often spoke of his sexual prowess, Bollea was not, and therefore publishing the tape, which had been made without his consent, violated his privacy.
In 2016, the jury found for Bollea and awarded him $115 million; Gawker folded a few months later and Hogan found himself in the middle of a debate about the 1st Amendment and the decreasing popularity, and profitability, of the press.
More damaging, however, were leaked portions of that tape in which Hogan used racist slurs, including the N-word, when discussing his daughter’s boyfriend. In 2015, the WWE terminated Hogan’s contract and removed all mention of him from his website. Hogan’s subsequent apology tour led to him being reinstated in 2018.
These were not the only scandals in which Hogan was involved — in the late 1980s, he was instrumental in preventing an attempt by other wrestlers to unionize; his divorce from Linda was messy, and he and his daughter were estranged for years. His appearance at the RNC convention last year divided his fans. In January, he was booed by members of the crowd gathered for the Los Angeles premiere of Netflix’s “WWE Raw,” which many, including Hogan, saw as a condemnation of his support for Trump.
Not that he seemed too concerned. In a culture where hate-watching is courted and toxic conversation applauded, the only real enemy is silence. As Hulk Hogan taught us, for better and worse, a face is as good as a heel and a boo is as good as a cheer, just as long as the crowd continues to make some noise.
Spain had dominated possession, but they had struggled to break through a resilient defence in Zurich as Christian Wuck’s side dug deep to force extra time.
But with the game looking destined for a penalty shootout, Bonmati stepped up when it mattered – sending Spain to their first Women’s Euro final.
“It was not easy for [Bonmati] at the beginning of the tournament but she has a special personality to be at the maximum level,” said Spain boss Montse Tome.
Bonmati had cleverly darted into space between Germany defenders Rebecca Knaak and Franziska Kett, before receiving Del Castillo’s pass on the half-turn.
Despite the tight angle, she buried the ball in at the near post.
“Top-class players turn up in the moments and that’s what Spain needed. That’s why Bonmati is a Ballon d’Or winner,” ex-Scotland defender Jen Beattie said on BBC Radio 5 Live.
Former England defender Steph Houghton added: “I honestly thought from Spain’s point of view she was definitely their best player and she’s got them through to their first-ever European Championship final.”
The goal sent the Spanish fans at Stadion Letzigrund into pandemonium, while the scorer was immediately embraced by members of La Roja’s bench.
“When the ball was in, I started running and I saw the bench standing so I celebrated with them,” said Bonmati.
“Scoring in a game like this one is super-special. If I can help the team write history, it’s very special.”
She added: “I was confident in my mentality and my physical situation. I wanted to get to this game at my best level. Thanks to all people who were next to me to help me reach this level.”
